An afternoon at Windsor & Eton
After a busy couple of days I made sure to sleep in a little late on Sunday morning. I got out the travel book and looked at some different options for a day trip and decided on Windsor & Eton. I too the tube to Waterloo station and bought my ticket however after doing so, I couldn’t seem to find the destination listed on the monitors. I asked the information desk and found out that the trains were not running to Windsor at the time. Bugger! So instead of a lovely 1 hour direct ride to Windsor, I had to take a train the slowest train known to man, I think I could have jogged faster! I went to Hounslow first, on the outskirts of London, and from there I had to board a bus that was bound for Datchet & Windsor. I have really come to take the trains for granted and forget what it can be like to sit on the roads…there was quite a lot of Sunday afternoon traffic on the way there…the whole trip took at least 2 hours. By the time I got to Windsor, around 2pm, I made a beeline for the castle as I know it only stayed open until 4pm.
Windsor Castle is still in use by the royal family. In fact the Queen of England spends most of her weekends here. This is also where she will receive international guests and host banquets and celebrations. You know that she is present because they fly her crested flag on the tower of the castle. She was there this weekend! I hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so I stopped at a shop which sells Cornish Pasties. These are quite good for an on-the-go meal. It is a piece of dough in a semi-circular shape with different fillings rolled up inside of it. I had cheese, potato and mushroom in mine, but there were all kinds of options. This treat originates from Cornwall and from what I read, it was eaten by the coal miners. Their wives would actually bake the man’s initials into his pasty. He would eat the one half for lunch and leave the side with the initials for later. It was marked so that none of his co-workers could steal it.
After I paid my entrance fee, I picked up my free audio-guide. It led you through different parents of the outer castle and inner rooms. I started by walking around the perimeter of the castle inside the castle walls. The tower, which flies the flag, is surrounded by an empty moat which now has a lovely flower garden and water fall! The castle was first built in the 1000’s as a wooden castle and has been modified over the years. It is on a hilltop looking out over the River Thames. The central tower is recessed underground and has a basin to catch rain water. This was in place so that if the castle were under siege, they would have enough drinking water to last at least a month. The castle walls were up to 4 meters thick with the slits in the walls out of which arrows could be fired. There is also as cathedral inside the castle walls which is supposed to be beautiful with many famous people interred there, however it was closed for worship on Sunday.
My first stop inside the castle was to see the Queen’s Dollhouse. This is an intricate and elaborate dollhouse that was actually not made for a child but for a Queen who loved miniatures and is supposed to model Windsor. It even has electricity and running water! It was pretty cool. I would have gone nuts for it as a kid. They also had some French dolls that belonged to some princesses and these dolls had elaborate outfits including fur coats. There was a British family looking at them while I was. The little girls were so cute, exclaiming, “Look mummy, these are sooo lovely! But why did the princesses only have two dolls?!”
The next room held art and photos. There were a bunch of sketchings by Da Vinci and some others and also a lot of memorabilia about the royal family which really drew the most attention. They really do love their royal family here, they are quite the celebrities. From there, I entered the China room which displayed her many different patterns and styles of fine dining china. This one set is so elaborate that it put the company who made it out of business due to the exorbitant cost. It was pretty outstanding, really wished I could take a photo but it was not allowed.
I then entered the residence area of Windsor castle. I won’t bore you with the details of each room but it was pretty impressive. Very ornate, lots of color, lavish furniture, beautiful paints and portraits by artists like Rembrandt. Sadly, there was a terrible fire at Windsor castle in 1992. Apparently they had just had some new interior designing done and the decorators had put in halogen lamps which were too close to the curtains and this started a huge fire that damaged a hundred some rooms on 5 floors. You would not know it now as it looks in great condition however they did lose a lot of old and beautiful pieces of furniture and art. They have replicated things the way they once were at this point and one would never know the difference! In fact when the rebuilt the ceilings of the great hall where they do huge banquets, they built it in the fashion that the medieval builders would have used by constructing it out of freshly felled green wood.
I got rushed through the tour at the end because it was closing, but all in all it was a very impressive castle. It is hard to imagine that people actually live there. The tour guide said that yesterday afternoon they saw the dogs running outside the castle and it was Prince William with his girlfriend, Katie, here for lunch with the Queen Mum. Many of the rooms he also mentioned were used to host visiting dignitaries and presidents and pointed to the areas where the quintessential hand-shaking pictures are taken. There is a room called the Waterloo Room which is quite grand, but when the French come, they have to call it the Music Room so as not to offend them by gloating over winning the battle!
After leaving the castle, I strolled around the town of Windsor a bit. It is also quite quaint and beautiful. I perused a few shops but things were starting to close up since it was Sunday. I stopped in the grocery store, Waitrose, which is where I used to shop in Brighton. It is more of a high-end grocery store and I picked up a few delicious items to take home with me including Spinach, crème-fraiche and nutmeg soup, and honey & yoghurt whole wheat soda bread.
I walked through the Windsor train station which is really nice! It has a glass ceiling and inside are lots of really nice shops and cute restaurants and eateries! Since the sun was starting to go down, I headed quickly to the Thames and crossed over in to the town of Eton. This is famous for Eton College which is where the posh British people go like princes and future prime ministers. The town was also very cute and quite deserted at this time of day but very peaceful. I walked by and around some of the college’s buildings and they are all very old and beautiful. I tried to peak into the courtyard of one, but the guard wouldn’t let me in. He said for starters, I am a female and this is a boy’s school and second, it’s too late! So I just walked around and peered into the light up houses and dormitories. Hard to imagine that being your home and school!!
When I got back to the train station in Windsor, I was please to discover that the trains were running again and I could be on my way in 10 minutes!! All ended well!!
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